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Banach-Tarski (Part II)

“Why would you want to duplicate a teddy bear?” said Kevin. “Millions are made every year.”

“Those are of no relevance,” said Dr. Copolla, “until given to a child, who loves and plays with them and imprints them with their own personality. If I gave you a freshly manufactured bear of Mr. Ted’s line, would you accept it?”

“Precisely,” said Dr. Copolla. “Now, the Banach-Tarski machine only copies perfectly spherical objects. So we must encase teddy in a silicon crystal.”

She tighlty sealed the bear in a plastic covering and placed it in a glass cabinet. Kevin saw a shiny metal surface grow around the bear and thicken into a ball. Copolla carefully removed the ball from the cabinet, placed it into the Banach-Tarski machine and flicked a switch. A loud whine and crackling noises filled the room.

“Matter is made of molecules,” yelled Dr. Copolla over the noise. “Which are made of atoms, composed of quarks, made of preons, made of holons and so on down infinitely. We measure everything, and then perform a Smale eversion using the Banach-Tarski function discovered in 1924. The result is…”

The machine clicked off, and silence fell. Dr. Copolla extracted two metal spheres, which she cracked open like eggs to reveal two identical Mr. Teds.